Joseph Jaffe just wrote a post saying every time your brand is mentioned on a blog you need to respond. But he's wrong. And I reckon Adam Ferrier might even be onto something when he said brands should just leave consumers alone.
Just because someone mentions your brand name, it doesn't mean you have to go in and "engage". Just because someone says something about jeans on Twitter, it doesn't mean you have to follow them if you're Levi. And just because someone mentions something remotely related to your product, it doesn't mean you have to comment on my blog.
This is called spam. And if you do it on this blog I have no problem tearing you to shreds.
I'm all for monitoring the social media environment. But when it comes to responding, don't do it all the time. Only do it when you can provide value. If it's relevant, and you can answer a question, point someone in the right direction or even give them something free or discounted, then you may respond.
And if you want to see somebody doing social media response well, the Body Shop is a good place to start. Joseph and Adam, I give you both permission to respond if you please....

Last October I posted about two social media strategy models I had been working on. The first was Response and the second was Broadcast.
Taking on the advice of Gavin Heaton and Kate Richardson I have made some slight adjustments to the Response model. While I would recommend reading the original post, the key differences are the addition of measurement on behalf of the marketer and recognising the circular nature of this process.
Thoughts?...

Today I'm going to talk about Daniel Oyston and his entry into the Australian marketing blogosphere.
It started early last year when Oyster first sent feedback to the Marketing Today podcast. He followed that up with further comments over the next few months, adding value to the conversation each time. In October, he started his own blog.
He was soon commenting on a number of different blogs, adding insight and thought to each post. Building up his online presence, he established networks and from that his own posts started receiving a lot of attention.
He contacted me personally and we had a number of emails back and forth about beer and funny internet memes. He still sends me random shit he thinks I'll like. And he offered to host some images on a server he had access to.
In less than six months, he's been able to do what I've been trying to for nearly two years. In just this short a time, he's blog is held in incredibly high regard. I believe that while his content is remarkable, his community driven approach and the rules of engagement he followed have attributed to his success.
I think if you asked Oyster whether this was a strategy he set out to do or if this was just what he thought was common sense, logical and how a decent friendly guy would act, his answer would be the latter.
Brands can learn a lot from this.
The way Oyster first monitored the environment, began to put out feelers and ultimately engaged with the right influential people was superb. Brands should use this example when conducting social media response and broadcast....

"Social media is more than just advertising", said Julian Cole at the Digital Marketing & Media Summit on Friday. So quotable that I wrote it down to blog about.
I realised that without even intending to, I accidentally drew the line as to what is and isn't advertising when it comes to social media marketing, based on my two social media strategies.
The first is Broadcast, which is in a sense advertising and marketing focused. The second, Response, however is simply customer service.
Not everyone needs to market and advertise their product. But everyone should be engaging in and developing good customer service....

The way I see it, new media is the umbrella that encompasses everything from social media marketing to viral marketing to mobile marketing. Essentially, anything that does not interrupt a consumer with a great focus on consented, engaging and value providing content.
So what is social media? A few days of research, thinking and graphics work have lead me to two key strategies that can be undertaken when it comes to social media marketing. The first, which I'll be covering here is Response and the second, which I'll be posting tomorrow, is Broadcast.
Above the line is from marketer's point of view. Below it, is from the consumer's.
Monitor
Before jumping into the pool it is important to test the water. Observe your consumer and community in focus from afar. Before posting a comment on someone's blog, you must first understand what they're talking about. You should be scoping the scene out to see if you can firstly join the conversation and secondly add to the conversation.
Identify
There are too many blogs, social network profiles, YouTube videos and tweets for you to respond to them all. After monitoring your consumer and community it is important to identify the most influential people within this niche. Using these opinion leaders and those with loyal audiences (not necessarily large), you will be able to more effectively and efficiently target your key customers.
Engage
After monitoring and identify the influential consumers within a community, you can now engage with them. This relationship might be a short or long but either way it should be a case of providing meaningful and relevant value to consumers and their community.
UGC
You have now engaged with the consumer and started a relationship which has been built on the mutual exchange of value. Here the marketer gives up control of the message and the community takes over with the creation of user generated content. It could be something small like establishing and spreading buzz online (or offline) through social networks or something much more involved like writing a blog post or publishing a video on YouTube.
The Body Shop do this extremely well. Not only do they have a blog (see Broadcast), but actively respond to influential bloggers. As a result, I'm creating content about them right now.
This is one of two strategies I have identified that could be used when approaching social media marketing. The other is Broadcast. Please feel free to offer any thoughts or critique.
Edit: I have since updated this model here.
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